EDITOR: Great educators inspire. Well, Morgan Hill School
District Superintendent Carolyn McKennan
’s letter to The Times in the Jan. 13 edition inspired me.
EDITOR:
Great educators inspire. Well, Morgan Hill School District Superintendent Carolyn McKennan’s letter to The Times in the Jan. 13 edition inspired me. It seems that a student could meet the minimum requirements for entrance to a UC or CSU but not meet the minimum requirements for graduation from high school. I was sure she had all the facts at hand and didn’t want to confuse the reader by providing too much information in her letter. However, I decided not to bother the MHSD office with questions of “how can this be?” so I went onto the web, did a little research and found the facts.
There are 13 required courses for California high school graduation as shown on the California Department of Education web page http://www.cde.ca.gov/shsd/hsgr/. I copied the following text from that page: Section 51225.3 states that commencing with the 1998-99 school year, all pupils receiving a diploma of graduation from high school must complete all of the following while in grades nine to 12, inclusive:
• Courses in the subjects specified, each course having a duration of one year, unless otherwise specified.
• Three courses in English.
• Two courses in mathematics, including one year of Algebra I beginning in 2003-04 (California Education Code Section 51224.5).
• Two courses in science, including biological and physical sciences.
• Three courses in social studies, including United States history and geography; world history, culture, and geography; a one-semester course in American government and civics, and a one-semester course in economics.
• One course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. For the purposes of satisfying the requirement specified in this subparagraph, a course in American sign language shall be deemed a course in foreign language.
• Two courses in physical education, unless the pupil has been exempted pursuant to the provisions of Education Code Section 51241.
• Other coursework as the governing board of the school district may by rule specify.
The California State Universities require graduation from high school with, at least, the following 15 courses: History and Social Science – 2 years, English – 4 years, Math – 3 years, Laboratory Science – 2 years, Language – other than English – 2 years, Visual and Performing Arts – 1 year, College Preparatory Elective – 1 year
The University of California system didn’t specifically state that graduation from high school was a requirement but since they are among the finest schools in the country I’m going to assume they would prefer that entering freshmen had graduated high school. They require, at least, the following 15 and recommend 18 courses:
History and Social Science – 2 years, English – 4 years, Math – 3 years (4 years recommended), Laboratory Science – 2 years (3 years recommended), Language – other than English – 2 years (3 years recommended), Visual and Performing Arts – 1 year, College Preparatory Elective – 1 year
The facts I found showed me that there are more required classes for college admission than there are for high school graduation. However, Superintendent McKennan insisted that – “If the district were to adopt the UC/CSU entrance requirements as graduation requirements, students would not fulfill the state defined high school graduation requirements and thus could not receive a state approved diploma.” So, how can this be?
Well, it turns out that the state requires 11 academic courses and 2 physical education courses for high school graduation. The UC and CSU system require 15 academic courses and do not require physical education. If you refuse to take physical education without the proper exemption you will not be eligible for high school graduation.
A cynical person might think the superintendent was being duplicitous. I’m sure that if the Morgan Hill Times contacts the MHSD office they will receive information that does a much better job of detailing and comparing the requirements than I have been able to do in this letter and we will see that the superintendent was just looking out for us all by simplifying this very complex subject.
Al Medeiros, Morgan Hill
